Comic book-inspired films are hard to translate. But Spawn was supposed to be different. It had the blessing and assistance of creator Todd McFarlane, who even had a part as an extra. It should've worked, right?

Nope.

Plot? Gone. It's weak as hell. Martin Sheen plays the role of Jason Wynn fine (he's the head CIA guy) and Melinda Clarke is a hottie as Jessica Priest, the chick who helps off Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), the man who will become Spawn. But John Leguizamo is annoying. When I say annoying, I mean ANNOYING. He's all jokes and one-liners, and none of them are funny.

What's worse, it's an effects driven film (thus explaining a shoddy plot), and for all the hype surrounding those effects (the movie was made by the guys responsible for the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park), they stink. I was particularly fond of the shots of the souls in hell standing on the rock outcropping. What was even cooler was the shots of the souls in hell that didn't seem to be standing on anything at all. The Violator (part CGI, part animatronic) lumbers and lurches when a puppet, and stands out like a sore thumb when shot using CGI. Dumb and shoddy.

Oh well, it made around $55 million and was deemed a success (despite costing $40 million), so look for Spawn 2 in the year 2000 or so.